Catering, Chef, Cookery Classes, Cooking, Food, Recipes

Offaly Good Food!

March 10, 2012March 11, 2012 heypesto

After the fun and success of last year’s Taste of Offaly I was delighted when Midlands 103 invited me back for a second year!

We have SO much good produce in Offaly and it’s a privilege to be asked to come up with ideas to cook with this wonderful food.

I have to admit I was a little starstruck when I saw my name in the Sunday Business Post (thanks Vivienne and Gillian ;-)!)

This year we had a much ‘posher’ demo kitchen thanks to Flogas – I could actually cook in the oven this year (last year we had to pretend the oven was working!!!)

The exhibition hall was hopping all through the day and it was great to catch up with all the food producers. Thanks to everyone who supplied the ingredients and I hope I haven’t left anybody out!

Pigs on the Green
Deverell’s Farm Direct
O’Donohue’s Bakery
Kilbeggan Organic Oats
Lough Boora Farm
Ballyshiel Chocolate
Mossfield Organic Cheese
Coolfin Gardens Organic Bakery
Tullamore Meats Co-operative
Boozeberries
Coole Swan (with the best salesgirl ever!)
The Wine Buff
Tullamore Dew
Derryvilla Blueberry Farm
Glenisk

This year I also had the opportunity to watch the other demos and really enjoyed watching Feargal O’Donnell from the Fatted Calf and Numb from Bang Thai cooking with our local produce – it’s great to learn from other chefs!

Plus I owe a big thanks to Feargal for helping me out with frying pans, cheese etc (though I’m a bit peeved he didn’t share the fresh tarragon!) . The Fatted Calf is definitely on my ‘to visit’ list – if only to taste more of the smoked beetroot!

As promised here are the recipes from the day…..

Pigs on the Green Pork in Tullamore Dew Whiskey Sauce

What you need:

1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 Pigs on the Green pork steak, cut into medallions
50 g butter
5 tbsp Tullamore Dew whiskey, plus a little extra!
1 red onion sliced
300 ml chicken stock
200 ml Glenisk Cream
Good dash Highbank Apple Syrup
1 tsp chopped tarragon

What you do:

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. Cook the pork pieces on one side for 2-3 minutes until golden-brown.
Add the butter to the pan then turn the pork over and cook for 1-2 minutes until browned on the other side. Transfer the pork to a warm plate and set aside.
Pour in the whiskey to deglaze the pan,making sure to scrape up any bits of pork on the bottom of pan. Reduce the heat and add the onion and sauté for 5 minutes, until softened but not coloured.
Then turn the heat back up, add the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat again and leave the sauce to simmer for 15-20 minutes or until reduced by approximately half.
Pour in the cream and whisk in the syrup. Season, to taste, then add in another little dash of whiskey!
Add the cooked pork back into the sauce along with the tarragon, and heat through foe a few minutes before serving with rice.

Deverell’s Farm Direct Spiced Lamb Burger

What you need:

450g/1lb Farm Factory Direct lamb pieces, minced
1 onion, grated
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 garlic clove
Grated zest of orange
Handful fresh coriander
1 tsp salt

What you do:

This is a nice easy recipe – you just mix all ingredients together in your food processor and then form into burgers.
If you have time, chill the burgers for a while – I think this helps them hold their shape
Cook the burgers for about 5 mins each side.
I served them in O’Donohue’s burger buns which Cathal kindly made for me, beautiful salad leaves from Lough Boora Farm and my own red onion marmalade.

Kilbeggan Oats Biscuits

I knew I was under pressure when I tasted the biscuits on the Kilbeggan Oatmeal Stand – they were seriously good! Pat’s wife , Lily had made beautifully crisp cookies so we had a great chat about the differences in our recipes – the main one being the that I used the jumbo flakes whereas she uses the finer flakes. the recipe I use is a childhood favourite that my Mum always makes – I hope you like them!

What you need:

6oz butter
6oz caster sugar
1 dsp golden sryup
1 tsp bread soda
6 oz flour
8 oz Kilbeggan Jumbo Oats

What you do:

Melt the butter and sugar slowly over a low heat.
Add the golden syrup and remove from the heat. Stir in the bread soda
Fold in the flour and the oatflakes.
Make sure everything is well mixed before rolling out the mix. Stamp out into small discs
Bake at 180C /Gas 4 for 10 mins until golden brown.

Offaly Cranachan! — an Offaly Version of Cranachan!

I never got to take photos of the mini banoffees made with Ballyshiel Dulce de leche; mini meringues with compote made using Derryvilla blueberries and Boozeberries blueberry liqueur; and decadent chocolate delight made with Coole Swan and Glenisk organic cream ………for some reason these all disappeared rather quickly……as did the cocktail sausages!! (If anyone has any pictures from the day I’d love to see them)

We really have an amazing wealth of local produce in Offaly – please support these dedicated food producers and choose local!

Thanks again to Midlands 103, all the food producers, everyone who came along to the demos and a special thanks to my Mum and James for being my assistants on the day!

Happy Cooking!

PS there’s another exciting local food project coming up – watch this space!

Baking, Cakes, Catering, Cooking, Food, Recipes

Meringue Gateau – a cake for all seasons!

January 30, 2012February 5, 2012 heypesto

A few weeks ago on twitter Evin was looking for suggestions for an alternative Christening cake and I suggested this one. This is a cake that I’ve used for christenings, birthdays, First Communions and even a small wedding. It’s versatile, elegant and relatively simple to make but it does look impressive!

I made one for a ‘surprise’ birthday recently and decided to go for three layers rather than the normal two. You only need three things to assemble this cake – meringues, butter cream and whipped cream , lots of it!

For the Meringue Discs, I used 8 egg whites and 16oz caster sugar whisked together in the Kenwood until mixture formed stiff peaks (NB make sure your bowl is clean and dry before adding the egg whites !)

Btw meringue measurements only even seem to work for me in imperial – 2 ozs sugar to each egg white.

Draw 3 20cm/8″ circles on parchment paper – turn the paper over so pencil doesn’t get on cake and pipe the meringue mix evenly over the three circles. Don’t worry there will be some leftover – I just pipe these as baby meringues.

Now comes the part where everyone seems to disagree – I cook the discs at 130 C Fan for 30 mins, check to see how they’re doing and normally end up leaving them for another 10-15 mins at 100 C Fan. You’ll know the meringues are done when you can lift them off the paper easily. I always leave my meringues to cool in the (switched-off!) oven.

Please note it’s very useful to stick a tea-towel in the oven door to remind yourself that there’s something in there – twice baked meringues are not good – trust me I know!

Next you need to make Chocolate Butter Cream. For three layers I used 9 oz butter, 13oz icing sugar and 3 oz Green & Black’s Cocoa Powder – blend all three ingredients in a food processor and add in good dash of rum or brandy to loosen the mixture.

You also need to whip lots of Glenisk cream – I think I used at least a litre on this cake (see I’m incapable of sticking to one measurement system – must be the engineer in me!)

Now to assemble the cake, sorry gateau!

Use a little butter cream to keep the base meringue layer in place on the cake board , then carefully spread butter cream over the first meringue disc.

Then cover the butter cream with whipped cream (I never said this was going to be low calorie, did I ?)

Place the next meringue disc on top of the cream and then repeat the chocolate butter cream and whipped cream layers. Top with the final meringue disc

Then just in case there isn’t enough cream – you need to cover the entire cake in more of it!

I put it in the freezer to set overnight at this point – if time is of the essence you can skip this step and decorate it straight away.

Now came the tricky bit – I normally just decorate the top with lots of chocolate and baby meringues but something made me want to write on the top this time (never again!). I did lots of practising……….

and I got lots of twitter support from Arnelle and Rosanne on how to pipe writing, freeze it, lift it off paper onto the cake, use stencils…… I even tried following Zack’s instructions for making a mini piping bag….

And this is what I ended up with ….

I may need more practise on my writing but the cake itself went down very well even if the birthday girl wasn’t as surprised as she should have been!

I hope you like it too!

Happy Cooking!

Baking, Cakes, Catering, Cooking, Food, Recipes

Afternoon Tea Treat…..Lemon Cake

January 21, 2012January 21, 2012 heypesto

This is a very quick post in response to requests on twitter for for my apparently “famous” lemon cake recipe !

I found this recipe several years in one of those little books that sometimes come free with the Good Food magazine and it’s become a firm favourite!

The original recipe used an ‘all in one’ method which I found didn’t work for me so I reverted to the old fashioned creaming of the butter and sugar first (in my trusty Kenwood of course………..)

It’s a quick and easy cake to make and it freezes well – always good to have one on standby. We like to serve it with morning coffee or afternoon tea and it always goes down with our clients. I hope you like it!

Hey Pesto! Lemon Cake

No Servings: 15 mini squares

Oven: 180 C/Fan 160/Gas 4

What you need:

100g butter, softened
175g caster sugar
2 large eggs
75 ml milk
175g self-raising flour
1 tsp. baking powder
Zest of 1 lemon
Topping:

100g caster sugar
Juice of 1 lemon

What to do:

Cream the butter and sugar together using K beater in Kenwood (or by hand if you’re feeling energetic!)
Add in the eggs and the milk to give nice light batter
Then fold in flour, baking powder and lemon zest.
Pour mix into a lined baking tin (approx… 20cm * 30cm) and bake in preheated oven for 30 mins – you want it golden-y colour and firm to touch.
Make the icing by heating together the sugar and the lemon juice until the sugar is dissolved.
Pour the icing over the cake and leave to cool.
Once cooled cut into squares , dust with icing sugar and serve on a pretty plate!

PS I have made a gluten free version using Dove’s Farm GF flour and a teaspoon of Xanthan Gum – it works!

Happy Cooking!

PS2 apologies for lack of photos of finished cake but I did say this was a quick post!

Catering, Cookbooks, Cooking, Food

To resolute or not!

January 1, 2012January 2, 2012 heypesto

New Year’s Day always seems to be a day for reflection and for making great plans for the forthcoming year. Though I remembering reading somewhere that new year resolutions would be much more successful if made any time other than on January 1! So maybe I should wait until February 1 before trying to improve my life!

One thing I am determined to do is blog more – thankfully December was very busy month for Hey Pesto! so I’m afraid lots of things were neglected. I am going to get back on track with working through my cookbook collection (which surprise, surprise is still growing!)

I want to give more cookery classes, starting with ‘Easy Entertaining’ this month ( I love this poster designed by Ken of Any Given Food)

I want to update my own skills by attending a few classes myself – all suggestions welcome!

I can’t believe this is Hey Pesto! ‘s 8th year in business so here’s to 2012 being a good one! I’m doing a ‘Grow Your Business’ course at the moment and I need to do lots of homework before my next mentoring session next week!

But most importantly I want to enjoy life, eat lots of good food and spend time with friends and family.

So have you made any resolutions?

Happy New Year!

Yvonne x

Catering, Christmas, Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Recipes

An alternative to Turkey?

December 4, 2011December 5, 2011 heypesto

When I was researching recipes for last Christmas I came across this recipe in an old Christmas magazine (I think it was Good Food) – I didn’t get a chance to try it at the time but I have used it for dinner parties during the year and it’s divine!

Definitely an option for Christmas dinner if you don’t want to go the traditional route of turkey and ham…..

Fillet of Beef with Mushroom Stuffing

This will feed 6 people very comfortably with a bit left over for later! Rule of thumb I use is 8oz beef per person – this allows for any shrinkage in cooking (and demonstrates my ongoing inability to work solely in metric!)

What You need:

1.5 kg Fillet of beef
25g dried porcini
300g wild mushrooms, finely chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
25-50g butter
1 garlic clove, crushed
tbsp chopped thyme leaves

What You Do:

First thing to do is make the mushroom stuffing: soak the dried mushrooms in 250ml of boiling water for about 20 mins. Then remove mushrooms from the liquid and finely chop. Strain the soaking liquid and set aside for your sauce
Heat butter and a little olive oil in large frying pan (the oil will prevent the butter burning) and cook shallot and garlic for 3-5 min, then stir in chopped porcini and cook for 2 mins.
Add chopped mushrooms and thyme.I usually add a dash of Madeira at this point too! Cook for 10 mins until lightly browned and any liquid has evaporated. Season to taste. Leave to cool.
Now for the fun part – you need to open out the fillet of beef so you can stuff it : About 1/3 of the way down the thickness of the fllet make an incision from the right almost to the end. Then make a second incision a 1/3 of way from bottom of fillet, this time from the left again not cutting all the way through. This allows you to open the meat out into one flat piece. (I hope my description makes sense!)
Spread the mushroom mix over the surface of the meat then roll it up tightly like a swiss roll. Tie it with string to hold the shape. You can leave in fridge overnight if required.
Heat oven to 200 C/180 Fan/Gas 6.
Sear the rolled fillet in roasting pan with oil and butter.
Then transfer to oven to cook

Rare 20-25 mins

Medium 35 mins

Well Done 45 mins

You can add some shallots to roast around the beef and add some extra whole mushrooms about 10 mins before the end of cooking time.
Make sure to rest meat for about 10-15 mins before carving.

Madeira Sauce

Use up all the yummy bits left in the roasting tray to make a sauce:

Put tray back on hob and stir in 1 tbsp cornflour, and pour in 3 tbsp Madeira (you can use Brandy either but it’s safer not to pour directly from the bottle!).
When madeira is almost boiled away add in the reserved mushroom liquor and 400 ml beef stock.
Cook for about 5 mins, srain and then stir in about 100ml cream and cook for another few minutes. Season and add some chopped parsley.

We served the beef in a steak-sized slice on a bed of celeriac mash with the sauce spooned around the mash and on another occasion with caramelised beetroot and green beans.

: Fillet of Beef with Mushroom stuffing with Madeira Sauce, Green Bean Bundle and Caramelised Beetroot & Shallots

This is the only picture I can find of the dish and I apologise for the poor quality of the image but believe me it is an amazing dish and worth the effort!

I wonder if I could persuade my family to change from turkey this year………

PS thanks to @Murpheroo on twitter for reminding me of this great recipe!

Catering, Chef, Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Recipes

Christmas Canapés

December 4, 2011November 25, 2014 heypesto

I make a lot of canapés – both for business and home entertaining. This year I’ve been asked for easy canapé ideas at my cookery demos so I thought I’d share a few of my favourites. I hope you like them!

Mini Tartlets

I used to make my tartlets from filo pastry – a rather long process but I came across the idea for these on holiday last year and they have made my life much easier!

To make the tartlets you need.... — To make the tartlets you need….

You need a mini-muffin tray, a packet of wonton wrappers, some sunflower oil and a pastry brush – brush each wonton sheet with oil and mould it into the muffin tin to make a small case. (This is much easier to demonstrate than explain!)

When you’ve filled the mini muffin tray sprinkle the cases with a little salt and bake at 200 C for 4 mins. Allow to cool on a wire rack and then use or store in airtight container for up to 4 days.

This is what your end product should look like:

The possiblities are now endless….Some fillings I use are:

Avocado & crab topped with some créme fraiche and dill mustard
Red onion marmalade and Cooleeney brie (put in oven for minute or two to soften the cheese)
Prawn cocktail
Thai beef salad

christmas demo 009 — Crab & avocado tartlets

christmas demo 011 — Red Onion Marmalade & Cooleeney Brie

Sticky Christmas Sausages

This is another great recipe from my favourite Christmas book ‘Nigella’s Christmas’ and the best thing is that they can be prepared in advance and frozen – just put mix and sausages in plastic bag and take out of freezer a few hours before your guests are due!

What you need:

2lbs cocktail sausages (approx. 60)
125 ml sweet chilli sauce
60 ml cranberry sauce
60 ml soy sauce
1 tbsp. dark muscovado sugar
Juice of 1 small orange
Juice of 1 lime

What you do:

Mix together all the ingredients except the sausages to make glaze
Put sausages in foil tray (much easier than cleaning a roasting tray!)
Pour glaze over sausages and mix to coat.
Cook for 20 mins then turn and cook for another 10 -20 mins until they’re hot and sticky.

christmas demo 012 — Sticky Christmas Sausages

Smoked Salmon/Trout Wraps

This is another quick and easy idea which doesn’t really need a recipe!

What you need:

Tortillla wraps (I find the Discovery ones the easiest to roll!)
Some Goatsbridge Smoked Trout or some Smoked Salmon
Cream cheese

What you need:

Simply ‘butter’ your tortilla wraps with the cream cheese
Place strips of trout or salmon on the cheese
Season with a little black pepper and lemon juice then roll into a ‘tube’
If you have time wrap in clingfilm and leave in the fridge to set but otherwise trim the two edges, cut wrap into three then cut each piece into two diagonally (again this is much easier to show!)
Other fillings which work are roasted peppers, parma ham, pesto……..

Happy Cooking!

Catering, Chef, Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Recipes

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…..and other things festive

November 26, 2011November 26, 2011 heypesto

I LOVE Christmas and all things Christmassy! I know it’s still November but decorations are already starting to appear in my house – my mantlepiece has been dressed since last weekend as has the stairs thanks to Joanie of Flower Rangers!

My dream house is a large rambling one decorated with a big tree in the hall and lots of greenery everywhere, a large dining table dressed in white and gold and lots of festive smells emanating from the kitchen (the beautifully decorated one, that is!)

But back to reality in my current abode where it’s time to start planning the Christmas menus. Chestnuts are one of my favourite seasonal ingredients and here are some chestnut dishes I’ll definitely be cooking this year.

One of my favourite Christmas cookbook is Nigella’s Christmas and I love watching her do the Christmas thing on tv – I want to try the gingerbread with the tiny fir trees…

Two of my firm favourites from the book are the Chestnut Soup and the cranberry & soy sausages. The soup is worth making in advance and freezing – it’s a real winter warmer on Christmas Day!

Chestnut Soup with Crispy Parma Ham

I’ve changed the quantities as the original one would feed about two armies! I also don’t use the recommended garlic oil as personally I don’t like the taste!

What you need:

1 small onion, finely chopped
1 leek, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 stick celery, finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
250g red lentils
1 ½ litres vegetable stock
200g pack of peeled, cooked chestnuts
Good big dash sherry
4 pieces of parma ham

What to do:

Heat the oil in large saucepan and cook the chopped vegetables for about 10 mins, until softened.
Stir in the lentils and then add the stock. Bring to the boil and then leave to simmer for about 30 mins, until the lentils are soft.
Add the chestnuts and purée the soup in the food processor, in batches if necessary. (Can prepare ahead to this point and freeze if requires)
Pour in the sherry and season to taste.
Crisp the slices of parma ham between two baking sheets in a hot oven for about 10 mins.
Crumble the crispy ham over the soup to serve.

************

We have potatoes at least 3 ways with our Christmas dinner. I tried this potato recipe after seeing Gary Rhodes making it a few years ago and it’s become another family favourite!

You can cook the potatoes on Christmas Eve and caramelise the potatoes and chestnuts about 3o mins before you serve dinner. This dish would also be great on Stephen’s Day with left over spuds!

Caramelised Potatoes & Chestnuts

What you need:

500g new potatoes, scrubbed
50g butter
1 tbsp caster sugar
16 cooked chestnuts, quartered

What to do:

Steam the potatoes for 20-30 mins until tender.
Melt the butter in a shallow pan and add sugar. Cook over a low heat for about 2 mins then add potatoes and chestnuts.
Cook for 5 mins stirring occasionally so that they caramelise evenly. (May need longer if you are re-heating the potatoes)
Season and sprinkle with chopped chives to serve.

*********

I love trying out new recipes and I was asked to test this one during the week – it was my first time making sausage meat stuffing and I have to say I’m a convert! I’m even thinking of adapting the mix into a Christmas canapé! (Thanks Ian)

Sausage Meat & Chestnut Stuffing

What you need:

200g good-quality sausage-meat
100g white breadcrumbs
1 apple, peeled and grated
1 tsp finely chopped fresh sage
1 tsp finely chopped fresh parsley
½ tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
50g chestnuts, coarsely chopped
1 egg
8 slices streaky bacon
16 little sage leaves

Method

Combine the sausage meat, breadcrumbs, apple, herbs, chestnuts and egg in a mixing bowl.
Season with black pepper and a little salt Mix well (use your hands!). Check your seasoning by frying off a little piece of the stuffing to taste. Correct seasoning if necessary.
Put slices of bacon on a chopping board and stretch with back of a knife. Half each slice.
Shape the stuffing into 16 mini sausage shapes, put a sage leaf on top and wrap each in a piece of streaky bacon.
Place on a baking sheet and roast at 180°C for about 20 minutes.

********

For all the recipes you can be a purist and roast and peel your own chestnuts – I did the first time I cooked with them. Now I ‘cheat’ and use the vacuum packed pre-cooked ones – so much easier!

Happy Cooking!

christmas 003 — Hope the greenery lasts.....

Catering, Cooking, Food, Recipes

Getting ready for Christmas!

November 20, 2011November 14, 2014 heypesto

Christmas came early to Hey Pesto! this year – with my first ever full day ‘lifestyle’ course on ‘Getting Ready for Christmas’

There was great fun organising everything – turning my living room into a ‘pop-up’ dining room and my garden into a temporary flower shop!

The ‘students’ arrived at 10.30 for coffee, scones and mince pies before we started on the cookery element of the day!

In hindsight I was a little ambitious with all I hoped to cover in the morning but we did manage to get through a lot! Thankfully I had made the ice cream in advance!

The menu for the day was:

Canapés – Crab & avocado tartlets, sticky cocktail sausages, brie & red onion marmalade tartlets and coronation turkey vol-au-vents
Starter – Chestnut soup with crispy bacon
Main – Risotto stuffed quail, celeriac & potato gratin, jazzed-up parsnip mash, caramelised potatoes & chestnuts, apricot & hazelnut stuffing balls
Dessert – Christmas pudding ice cream

By 1.30 everyone was tucking into canapés and prosecco (well except for the staff obviously!)

Cooleeny Brie and Red Onion Marmalade Tartlets — Cooleeney Brie and Red Onion Marmalade Tartlets

Sticky cocktail sausages — Cocktail Sausages alla Nigella!

After a few last minute vegetable cooking, the guests (yes they were upgraded for lunch!)adjourned to my ‘new’ dining room where lunch was served to them.

lunch is served — Main Course – Sauce to be added!

I have to apologise for the lack of colour on the main course plate – I concentrated more on different ways of cooking the vegetables rather than working on the colour! In ‘real life’ I would probably serve something like red cabbage with the quail to add colour! There was a debate over gravy – it’s not a tradition in our house so I never think of including it!

Thanks to Kate for taking the photos at lunch – we were busy turning the kitchen into a flower arranging room!

Once the guests were fed and ‘watered’ they reverted to students and Joanie from Flower Rangers took over – introducing us to the art of flower arranging and seasonal centrepieces.